A switch assembly has previously been manufactured wherein a base was made from a flat piece of insulation material which was die-cut to form the exterior shape and to punch a number of holes for rivets and the like. A contact blade was provided with dual movable contacts to engage dual stationary contacts. A movable blade was moved by an actuator lever. One end of the movable blade and actuator lever was contained inside a U-shaped bent sheet metal strap which was riveted to the insulator base. A metal post was disposed between the insulator base and the bight of the U and passed through apertures in the movable blade and actuator lever to retain those parts on the base. The actuator lever could move with an overtravel relative to the movable contact blade, and this switch mechanism was suitable for use in a centrifugally actuated apparatus to move the actuator lever between open and closed conditions of the switch contacts.
That prior art switch had a number of deficiencies, namely, a number of individual parts which had to be assembled and riveted, and hence requiring considerable labor content to manufacture. Also, the U-shaped sheet metal strap could not be made to a close tolerance because of the considerable variation in the thickness of the sheet metal from which the sheet metal strap was the U-shaped strap at the two ends of the bight always had a considerable radius; hence, the actuator lever had considerable loose motion in the width thereof relative to the width of the metal strap, which made for a considerable amount of sideplay of the actuator lever and movable contact blade.